Bad Day
by BastsCleopatra
Summary: Head Girl Lily Evans is having a very bad day. Annoying teachers and petulant friends just add to the torture. However, every bad day must end, and good days inevitably follow.
1. Part the First

Bad Day: Part One  
  
"I'm late! Sweet Merlin, I'm late!" Lily Evans, a seventeen-year-old witch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, ran in a perfect tizzy around her dorm room, trying to get dressed and brush her hair at the same time. Lily had dark red hair, just past her shoulder blades. Her green eyes were angry at her alarm clock for not waking her.  
  
She stuffed her books in her bag, and sprinted down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Most teachers and students had gone, with only a few lingering, late, as she was. She ate a bowl of porridge as fast as she could with one hand while getting her books to fit into her bags with the other. Finally, she finished, and ran out into the cold January air.  
  
"Of course," she thought bitterly, "I forget to bring a cloak." She trudged through the snow, taking a shortcut to Potions.  
  
As she approached the entrance to the dungeons, she saw a blond head whip inside. Lily recognized it as her best friend, Cassie Clark. She ran to catch up to her, relieved that she wasn't as late as she thought. When she got in, she noticed that only three people were there, and she wasn't late at all. In truth, she was quite early. Sighing in frustration, she sat down next to Cassie.  
  
"Morning, Lily. What's got you in such a bad mood?"  
  
"Nothing, nothing," Lily sighed, and put her head down on the desk, cushioned by her folded arms.  
  
Cassie left it at that. Lily wasn't one to provoke, especially in the morning, and especially when she was already in a foul mood.  
  
People filed into the classroom, talking in loud voices that prevented Lily from getting her nap that she fully intended to get that day. She put her head up and waited for the teacher to take roll.  
  
"Algorez!"  
  
"Here."  
  
"Annoert!"  
  
"Here."  
  
"Black!"  
  
"Present and accounted for, Professor, and may I say you're looking magnificent today?" Sirius fixed Professor Holter with a goofy grin, while she gave him a condescending glare.  
  
"No, Mr. Black, and if you speak out of turn again, it will be ten points from Gryffindor," she said softly, yet sinisterly. Contrary to Lily, the professor seemed to be in a good mood today.  
  
Professor Holter continued down the list, and finally started the lesson. "You will be making an Apathy Potion today. Instructions are on the board. You have forty minutes. Go."  
  
Lily got the ingredients and haphazardly put them on the desk while Cassie heated the cauldron.  
  
"Dice three lizards' eyes and chop eleven cockroaches. Add to cauldron and stir clockwise three times," Lily read aloud softly. She sighed, and did so.  
  
Cassie and Lily finished their potion quickly and filled a sample vile to hand into Professor Holter. As Lily was going up to the teacher's desk, a Slytherin put his foot out for her to trip. Lily saw, and calmly stepped over it. Walking back, she fixed him with a cold glare that could only be interpreted as, "Drop dead, scum." She supposed it was a bit much, but it was shaping up to be a perfectly horrid day.  
  
Lily and Cassie walked to Transfiguration together, but when the arrived, Professor McGonagall's previous class was still in session. People began to congregate at her door, and Lily wondered if she had gotten her schedule mixed up. They, and the rest of Gryffindor, stood outside of the classroom for almost half an hour until finally, the class filed out, and they went in.  
  
"My apologies, class, for keeping you. We will get started right away. Take out your textbooks and turn to page 729 for instructions on today's lesson," McGonagall said. She walked to her desk and sat down tiredly. "Practise transfiguring your animal into your partner's. You have the rest of the class period. Begin."  
  
Lily looked at her textbook, and read the instructions. She performed the spell, and successfully transfigured her parrot into a daffodil. Unfortunately, Cassie's animal was a lizard. She tried again, and got it on her fourth try.  
  
Lily looked around the room, and saw that most people had not gotten it yet. In the corner opposite her, however, were four boys that never ceased to get on her last nerve: Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and their "leader," James Potter, the worst of the lot. They, of course, were all finished (they had probably just skipped the magic part and traded their animals) and were chatting rather raucously.  
  
James looked up, and saw Lily looking at him (though he had not picked up on the look of disgust she wore). He ruffled his hair, and tried to flirt with her. Lily rolled her eyes and turned away. Three years of "courtship" and James had only managed to earn Lily's ire, rather than her favor.  
  
This year, however, he was slightly different. He had stopped cursing people in the halls (he saved it for a potential humiliating prank, if they deserved it). He had even cut down on ruffling his hair, even though it proved to be a difficult habit to break. This, however, was not enough to redeem him, at least in Lily's eyes.  
  
After class ended, Lily and Cassie met up with a couple of their other friends, Kathy and Larissa. While Kathy was more of a quiet type, Larissa was flamboyant, and always had a joke to tell. Today was no exception, and Larissa made her friends nearly choke on their lunch.  
  
Once the girls had quieted down from the laugh that Lily in particular desperately needed, Cassie took the stage. "You know, Lily, I saw you looking at," she leaned in, and spoke in a whisper, "James Potter."  
  
The other girls gasped, and their faces lit with anticipation. Lily looked at them almost calmly. She debated upon what to say, and submitted to telling them simply, "Later." They were disappointed, but understood that in Hogwarts, no secret could be risked being told in the open.  
  
The rest of the day went quickly enough, a relief to the dour Lily. Upstairs in the girl's dorm, however, her friends had not forgotten her little promise.  
  
"Lily," said Kathy, "weren't you going to tell us why you were looking at James today?"  
  
Larissa and Cassie's ears pricked, and they all gathered on Lily's bed. They sat, legs crossed much like a preschooler's Story Time, waiting for Lily to begin.  
  
"I have nothing to tell," she said plainly.  
  
Her friends were not going to settle for that. "Come on, Lily! Tell us you like him, and we won't bother you anymore!"  
  
"Yes, you would, and no, I won't tell you that. There's nothing to say!"  
  
"Then tell us why you don't like him, then," Cassie said.  
  
"Because," Lily started, "he's a big, arrogant, overbearing, insolent git. I don't like him, and I never will."  
  
"Oh, come on, Lily! He's been asking you out almost every day for three years! Can't you even feel sorry for him?"  
  
"Precisely! Don't you see that as needy and somewhat creepy?"  
  
"No, I think it's sweet that he is so persistent in you," said Kathy.  
  
"And it's so cute how he always gets nervous around you," said Cassie.  
  
"And just look at him, Lily!" proclaimed Larissa. "He's hot!"  
  
"Then why don't you three date him, so he'll leave me alone!" Lily shouted, and went down to the empty common room. She sat down in a chair in front of the fire so she could reflect and fume.  
  
"First I'm in a rush to class, just to find out I wasn't late," Lily thought angrily to herself. "Then the stupid Slytherin. and then I have to stand around doing nothing for half an hour, only to have my friends attack me about that bloody boy. I've just had the worst day in my life! At least tomorrow is Saturday, and I can sleep off this nightmare." She got up, and went back to her dorm, feeling better after ranting for a while. Lily decided to apologize to her friends for shouting.  
  
"Hey, guys?" Lily said, announcing her presence to her dorm mates.  
  
"Yes, Lily?" Kathy answered.  
  
"I'm sorry for yelling at you. I've had a really rough day. I'm really sorry."  
  
"It's okay, Lily," said Larissa. "It's not like we will condemn you just for being stressed."  
  
"But we still think you should give James a chance!" proceeded Cassie.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes, and got into bed. "Good night," she said. She was answered by three other "'Nights," and fell into a blissfully peaceful sleep.  
  
A/N: I'll make this short. I had a bad day, so I thought I would write a sort of allegory to it, using Lily. I'm sorry if it's bad, and if the plot is quite nonexistent. I, obviously being the writer, hate it, so I would love to hear from you so you can give me tips to improve my writing. Thank you!( 


	2. Part 2

Bad Day: Part 2

The next day, Lily got up depressed. "Oh, why me?" she thought while a splitting migraine threatened to nudge its way into her head. She decided to sleep in, for it was Saturday, and she didn't have classes. In the back of her mind, she knew she would regret not doing her homework that day, but she didn't care. All that mattered was that she needed sleep, and intended to get it.

"Lily? Lily, wake up." Lily heard a familiar voice permeating her dreams of Professor McGonagall talking with the Sorting Hat (which looked strangely like a slice of pumpkin pie) about monkeys and mirrors. She opened her eyes to see Cassie hovering over her bed. "You've been sleeping all morning. It's almost lunchtime."

"Lunchtime?! I didn't think I had slept in that late!" Her stomach answered her with a growl, as if saying, 'Yes, you did sleep that late, now eat.'

"Yes. Do you want to go down to the Great Hall with me?" Cassie asked.

"Sure. I'll be ready in a minute. Meet me in the common room." Cassie agreed, and left. When she had closed the door, Lily put her head under her pillow and groaned. "Half the day gone, and I still don't have any of my homework done!"

She got dressed quickly, and went down to the common room to meet Cassie. Lily saw Cassie talking to Larissa very excitedly about something, but they soon spotted her and stopped talking.

"Let's go," Cassie said-a little too cheerily-and they left.

After lunch, the girls went back up to the common room because it was raining outside. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea, and that meant that James and his cronies were lurking somewhere nearby.

Alas, this came true, and James spotted Lily seated in an armchair by the fire. He ruffled his hair and walked up to her.

"Alright, Evans?" he said, in deep tones.

She sighed, and looked at him. "What do you want, Potter? And don't tell me the Head students need to plan a ball or something; you wore that out last term."

Since this was exactly what he was going to say to her, he became very nervous, and his hand flew to his head. "Ah… well, then… Will you go out with me?" he asked, hopeful. He then realized that Lily didn't like his ruffling of the hair, and hastily lowered his hand to rub the back of his neck.

Lily noticed this, and became perplexed. It almost seemed as though the petulant boy that had persistently asked her out for the past two years had finally grown into a mature young wizard. She was further confuddled when she recognized that this was the first time he had asked her out for two months. With N.E.W.T.s coming up, she hadn't noticed. It almost seemed as though he had changed just for her. Even so…

"No, Potter."

"Er… ok, then. Ah, well, b-" he turned to leave. "Wait! McGonagall actually did want to see us. Tonight, in her office, after dinner," he said.

Lily was skeptical. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yes! I promise."

Lily still was doubtful, but said, "Alright." James nodded, and left.

Cassie and Larissa looked at each other, and raised their eyebrows. "Lily…" Larissa started.

"No. Don't you start up on me," Lily interrupted. "I don't care how cute you thought he was just now, I won't go out with him."

Her friends giggled. "That wasn't what I was going to say… But you said you thought he was cute?"

Lily groaned.

"Oh, Lily, cut the guy some slack!" Cassie said. "Can't you see that he really likes you?"

"And can't you see that it takes more than just one person liking another to build a relationship?" Lily retorted.

"You know, I think she has a point," said Kathy, who had a couple books tucked under her arm. She had just gotten back from the library.

"You see? Kathy agrees with me! Now, I have homework to do, and so do you. I'm going to the library. See you later," Lily said, picking up her bag, and going out the portrait hole.

Lily didn't really want to do her homework, but she knew she ought to. "Besides, this day can't really get any worse," she thought to herself.

Oh, but it can, and will. Those who have experienced several bad days will testify: things just don't get better as the day goes on. It's a sick twist of fate.

On her way down to the library, Lily once again crossed paths with James and his bunch of hooligans. How they got ahead of her so fast, she didn't really want to know. But there they were, and she hoped they wouldn't talk to her. At first, it seemed as though they hadn't seen her, but lo and behold, James called out, "Lily! Oi, Lily!"

She stopped dead in her tracks, and turned around slowly, trying to keep her composure. "Yes?" she said with as much sang-froid as she could muster. It was the first time she had heard him call her 'Lily,' and it startled her.

He ran up to her. "You don't want to go down this hallway. Trust me."

She narrowed her eyes. "Why?" Crossing her arms, she glanced at the rest of them. "What did you four do?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" said Sirius. "You just don't want to go down this hall. Why don't you go another route? Get some… exercise?" He faltered when he saw the dangerous look in her eyes that he was all too familiar with. At the moment, she was looking quite akin to McGonagall.

Lily looked back at James. "What did you do?" she reiterated.

James was becoming more and more nervous under her "Tell-me-now" stare. He needed to distract her…

"How about a date tonight, Evans? What do you say?"

Bad way to distract her, he later reflected.

Lily was at her wit's end with the quartet. "James Potter, you are Head Boy. You should not be playing childish pranks like this! Now, tell me—"

She was cut off by a massive BANG. She whirled around, and saw not three feet ahead a… Well, that was the problem. She didn't see anything.

"You… BLEW UP THE CORRIDOR?!" she yelled, seething.

"No, no, no! We didn't blow it up!" James defended. "We just…" he got an idea. "Yes, we blew up the corridor. We're bad people. We deserve to die. Good-bye, Lily." With that, he walked past her, and straight off the newly made cliff.

Lily covered her mouth with her hands. She couldn't believe he had just stepped off a ledge five stories high! Rushing over, she peered down, and saw James standing on the corridor, which had just been lowered.

However, instead of the cobblestone floor, it had become a beautiful garden of lilies. Somewhere behind her, Lily heard Remus say softly, "Nice touch, Prongs."

Lily rolled her eyes at the immaturity of it all. Later, she reflected that it was somewhat sweet, but at the moment, she wanted to curse James.

Restraining herself, Lily stalked off away from him, intending to go to Professor McGonagall.


End file.
